1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a catheter fixture for fixing a catheter to the skin of a patient.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of catheters has been widely implemented in recent years for treatment and diagnosis in medical facilities. This type of catheter requires that a tip part of the catheter be securely held to the appropriate area for treatment or diagnosis and is therefore generally fixed to the patient by an external part exposed outside of the skin.
Catheter fixtures for fixing a catheter to the surface of the skin of a patient have been conventionally proposed as a means for fixing a catheter to a patient. This type of catheter fixture is provided with, for example, a fixture main body made of a soft resin and a fixing member made of a metal or resin having higher rigidity than the fixture main body.
A retention part is provided on the fixture main body having an arrangement that allows for the catheter to be inserted. When configuring an insertion arrangement for the catheter, nearly the entire circumference of the catheter is covered by the retention part. The fixing member is covered from the upper direction of the fixture main body to provide sufficient reinforcing effect for the fixture main body. As a result, the catheter is fixed as the retention part is tightened.
Note, there are several other proposals for related art for this type of catheter fixture. See, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Application Publication 2003-154012 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2008-212434. In addition to those configured with a separate fixture main body from the fixing member, there are also those that are integrated by being mutually linked.
However, with the conventional catheter fixture, pressure is applied to the skin when the fixing member is engaged by covering from a perpendicular direction of the fixture main body. Therefore, there is the problem that the patient experiences a physical burden as the skin is compressed.
Further, there is also the risk of losing one of the compositional pieces when the conventional catheter fixture is composed of a fixture main body and a separate fixing member. Furthermore, conventional catheter fixtures have the weakness of not being able to obtain the recommended state as there is the risk of fixing by only using the fixture main body without using the fixing member.
In addition, with the conventional catheter fixture that is integrated by mutually linking the fixture main body and the fixing member, the two compositional components are merely linked by, for example, a strap or the like. It does nothing more than achieve an effect of loss prevention. Therefore, there remains room for improvement.
An object of the present invention, upon consideration of the problems described above, is to provide a catheter fixture that can stably fix a catheter to a patient without causing much of a burden to the patient at the time of fixing and which has no concern for losing the compositional components.